Alabama Basketball Player Maori Davenport Rides Bench For $857 Paycheck From USA Basketball

For any aspiring basketball player, the chance to move on to greater heights in the game depends on how well they perform on the court. For Maori Davenport, her skills were good enough to merit a spot on the U.S. team that won the gold medal at a tournament in Mexico City last summer.

A member of an Alabama high school basketball team, Davenport has found herself benched for her entire senior season. She was ruled ineligible after receiving a check worth $857.20 from USA Basketball, something that goes against the rules of her school, ESPN reported. She was ruled ineligible last Nov. 30 for what was deemed as receiving the money for "lost wages."

“Maori has not done a doggone thing, except receiving a check from doggone USA Basketball,” Rutgers coach Vivian Stringer said recently in a report from the Associated Press. “It was grown-ups at fault. And grown-ups did not lay claim to that.”

The weird thing about the case of Davenport is that most agree that she was caught in the middle of a scenario where adults are at fault. Making it worse is the fact that Alabama high school officials have stood firmly on their decision to keep her from playing ball.

It remains to be seen if the ruling will be overturned at some point. Two appeals have already been filed, and both have been denied by state officials.

Johnny Hardin, the president of the Alabama High School Athletic Association's Central Board of Control, singled out that the adults around Davenport should have known the rules to begin with. The Aug. 15 payment wasn’t reported for 91 days, and Davenport played in “several games” during that time, violating the state’s amateurism rule.

Another point raised is that Davenport's mother, Tara, serves as an assistant coach for Charles Henderson and has AHSAA certification. USA Basketball informed the AHSAA about the payment in November, according to Craig Miller, spokesman for the basketball organization.

Hardin is aware that there are numerous appeals and comments linked to the case of Davenport. Regardless, he stressed that rules have to be applied equally to all athletes and that making an exception would send out mixed signals, including ones that could question amateur rules.

One notable NBA player who came to Davenport's defense is DeMarcus Cousins of the Golden State Warriors.

“What the Alabama High School Athletic Association has done to Maori Davenport is wrong on so many levels that I don’t know where to start,” Cousins said on his Twitter account.

Davenport led Charles Henderson to a Class 5A state championship as a junior and a runner-up performance as a sophomore. She had 20 points, 25 rebounds and a state-record 19 blocks in the championship game loss.